


So Let the Words Slip Out of Your Mouth

by mb_stortroen1832



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Domestic Fluff, Enjolras Can't Say "I Love You", Established Relationship, Flashbacks, I Love You, Implied Sexual Content, Light Angst, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-12
Updated: 2018-01-12
Packaged: 2019-03-03 20:19:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13348761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mb_stortroen1832/pseuds/mb_stortroen1832
Summary: Enjolras loves his boyfriend, he does. It's just that every time that he has said those three words, his heart has been smashed into a million pieces. But Grantaire means the world to him, he deserves to hear them.Grantaire, on the other hand, knows that Enjolras loves him. He would never push Enjolras to say it, he'll wait for patiently for the day that Enjolras does say it.





	So Let the Words Slip Out of Your Mouth

**Author's Note:**

> The idea for this came to me when I was listening to Christina Perri's song, "The Words" (where the title is from). I suggest listening to it as you read. I hope you enjoy!
> 
> All grammar/spelling mistakes are my own. 
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Les Misérables or its characters. I just love this beautiful ship! I also do not own the song "The Words", Christina Perri does.

Enjolras woke up with the sun shining in his face. He looked over and saw that Grantaire was still sound asleep, lightly snoring. He rolled over to press a kiss to the back of Grantaire's neck causing his boyfriend to stir a little. Grantaire buried in the pillow, mumbling something about it being too damn early. Enjolras chuckled, but continued to press kisses to Grantaire's neck. He started running his hand down Grantaire's side and he felt Grantaire shiver underneath it.

"You know, morning sex is the best thing to wake up to." Enjolras whispered into Grantaire's ear.

Grantaire's eyes snapped open. He grabbed Enjolras's wrist and rolled them over, pinning him to the bed. Grantaire leaned down to kiss Enjolras before kissing down his neck. Enjolras let out a moan as he sucked a bruise into his neck.

"You're going to be the death of me." Enjolras said when Grantaire pulled away and looked into Enjolras' eyes.

They then proceeded to make love with Grantaire saying "I love you" into Enjolras' skin with every movement.

In the entirety of their two and half year relationship, Enjolras had never once said "I love you". It didn't bother Grantaire because he knew that Enjolras loved him, despite him never saying it. Enjolras never would have stayed with him this long if he didn't love him. Grantaire also knew about the pain and heartbreak Enjolras had endured in almost every single one of his previous relationships. 

Enjolras wanted to say it, but he knew that the moment that he said it, it would make him vulnerable to getting hurt. Granted, just simply falling in love with Grantaire, he was opening himself up to getting his heart broken. He just didn't know if he could take an even bigger risk in saying the three little words that Grantaire deserved to hear.

They've only been in a relationship for two and half years, but have known each other for six. They met a year after they graduated from university. Joly and Bossuet had tried to persuade Grantaire to attend a Les Amis meeting. Grantaire decided to reluctantly attend until he saw Enjolras and was immediately smitten. Following that first meeting, Grantaire never missed one.

However, their friendship wasn't smooth sailing. At the beginning of it, it was very rocky. It took them months to be able to be in the same room with each other without arguing. Their friends ended up staging an intervention and locked them in closet, so that they could work out their issues. Following that, they became friends, but Enjolras was still incredibly blind to Grantaire's feelings for him. Enjolras eventually developed his own feelings for Grantaire, but they were too oblivious to the others' feelings for them to do anything about it.

It wasn't until the aftermath of a protest turned riot that everything came to a head.

_The Café Musain, Two and a half years ago._

_Enjolras was sitting at one of the tables, getting his cut above his eyebrow stitched by Joly when Grantaire couldn't take it anymore. He stood up and started pacing, saying things about how Enjolras was going to get himself killed one of these days and he wasn't going to stand around to watch._

_"Then, leave! Why do you even stick around anyway?" Enjolras screamed at him._

_Grantaire got even more frustrated, so he yelled. "Because of you! I stay because of you! I stay because you're everything to me!" His voice became quiet as he said. "I stay because I love you."_

_The entire room seemed to freeze the moment the words were out of Grantaire's mouth. Enjolras stopped Joly's movements above his eyebrow and stood up._

_"What? You love me?" Enjolras asked._

_Grantaire avoiding eye contact with Enjolras, but he was blushing furiously. "Yes." He found his confidence and looked up at Enjolras to say. "Almost from the moment that we met, I have loved you."_

_Enjolras walked toward him and said. "I'm afraid that I never noticed." He then pressed his lips to Grantaire's._

_When Grantaire pulled away, he asked. "Will you be my boyfriend?"_

_But it took Enjolras two days before he gave him an answer. An answer of an obvious yes._

They got out of bed and Grantaire went to go make breakfast, while Enjolras took a shower. They've only been living together for about nine months, but it was the best nine months of Enjolras' life. When Enjolras got out of shower, he got dressed. He didn't have to be at work until 10, but it was only 8:15. He and Grantaire woke up every morning at 6:30 A.M. because of body clock. He walked out of the bedroom and into the kitchen where Grantaire had made up a breakfast of French toast with strawberries and blueberries on top, bacon, sunny side eggs, and coffee. Grantaire was also in the process of making fresh squeezed orange juice. Enjolras looked at all the food with a raised eyebrow because Grantaire never went all out like this unless it was one of their birthdays or their anniversary and he knew it wasn't one of those days.

"Did I miss something? Is it really our anniversary already?" Enjolras asked as he sat down.

Grantaire turned to look at him and shook his head. "No, you didn't miss anything, and no, it's not our anniversary. At least, not for another three months." He made his way around the table with a glass of orange juice. "I just felt like making my handsome, sexy, and drop dead gorgeous boyfriend a good breakfast." He set the glass down and wrapped his arms around his waist. Grantaire leans up to kiss him. "I love you." He pulled away to go back to his cooking.

They eat breakfast together, and then, Enjolras helped him do the dishes before he had to get ready to for work. When Enjolras was ready, Grantaire was ready and waiting with his keys, bag, and to-go mug of coffee. Enjolras put on his jacket and scarf – it was the middle of November, after all – before grabbing the items from Grantaire.

"Take it easy today, please. Don’t get so caught up in your artistic mind that you forget to take a break. Pace yourself. I'll be calling in to check up on you." Enjolras said.

About a month ago, Grantaire had ended up in the hospital because of a cold that turned into pneumonia. He had been working long and hard hours causing him push himself a little too hard that when he got sick, his immune system couldn't fight it off and he ended up in the hospital to drain the fluid from his lungs. Enjolras didn’t leave his side the entire time. Now, every day since Grantaire came home from the hospital before Enjolras left for work, he asked Grantaire to be careful and take it easy. Those first six hours of Grantaire being in the hospital as they drained the fluid had been the worst six hours of Enjolras' life and he never wanted to go through that again.

"I will." Grantaire said before kissing him goodbye.

Enjolras left their apartment and headed to work.

***

When Enjolras walked into the law firm that he owned with Courfeyrac and Bahorel for the last five years. Courfeyrac was standing at the coffee station. He turned to look at his friend and saw that Enjolras had a spring in his step.

"Someone got lucky this morning." Courfeyrac said. Enjolras gave him the finger as he walked by his friend toward his office.

Enjolras opened the door and took his jacket off. He placed his jacket on the coat hanger next to the door. He walked around the desk after setting his bag on top of it. As Enjolras took the contents out of the bag, his eye caught sit of the picture frame that was sitting on his desk.

Inside the picture frame was a picture of him and Grantaire standing on a beach with the sun behind them. His head resting on Grantaire's shoulder, while Grantaire gazed down at him lovingly. The picture had been taken on their two-week trip to Hawaii for their two year anniversary that their friends had sent them on. The picture frame itself had been a gift from Cosette and Marius. The picture frame was gray with a red heart that said "LOVE" in the right bottom corner and their names on the top of the frame. Grantaire had one too, but his was sitting on one of the tables in their apartment.

Enjolras picked up the frame and smiled. He caressed Grantaire's face with his finger before his gaze shifted down to the heart. His smile faded into a frown.

Enjolras felt horrible for not saying the three small words. He wanted to say them, had been close to saying them multiple times, but the words got stuck in his throat. Plus, something always seemed to go wrong whenever he felt the courage to say them. They got a case that took Enjolras away from being home with Grantaire as much as he wanted too. Grantaire was sent on a business trip by his own place of work. Or the one that was the most common, they would fight.

Combeferre walked in to Enjolras' office. Combeferre's presence in the office was quite common. He worked at the hospital down the street from the office building, so whenever he had break in the day, he would pop over to the office building and say hi. He noticed Enjolras' staring at the picture and felt sad for his best friend. Combeferre knew that Enjolras was struggling with saying "I love you" to his boyfriend.

"Enj, stop sweating it. Grantaire knows that you love him." Combeferre said to him as he sat down in one of the chairs across from Enjolras' desk.

"'Ferre, you know as well as I do that knowing it and hearing it are two totally different things," Enjolras said, placing the picture back on his desk. "And after all the pain that Grantaire has gone through in his life, he deserves to hear someone say "I love you" to him. Grantaire says it to me every chance he gets. In the morning, when he's making breakfast, before I leave for work, when I get home from work, when he's making supper, when we are making love. Hell, he even says it when he's pissed off at me. He says it me all the time, and I have never said it once."

Combeferre looked at his friend with sympathy in his eyes. "You'll say it when you feel the time is right. Enjolras, we both know why you're afraid of saying it, as does Grantaire. You took a leap of faith when you allowed yourself to fall in love with him. Grantaire knows that, and he's never pushed you into saying that you love him because of that. He's letting you take your time."

Enjolras smiled at his best friend. "And I love him for it." He let out a cry of frustration. "And that's what makes it even worse. I can say it to any one of my friends, but the moment that I want to say it to the man the words are actually for, my mouth goes slack and the words get stuck in my throat."

"Enj, calm down. Give yourself a little more time, and soon, you'll take the leap into saying it, okay? Just give it time." Combeferre told him. Just then, his pager went off. "Oh, I gotta run."

Enjolras nodded, but said, "Thank you, "Ferre." before his friend left as quickly as he came.

***

A few days later, they got into another spat. Grantaire had once again worked himself into exhaustion. Thankfully, not enough to become sick, but it was enough to upset Enjolras.

"You promised me!" Enjolras told him after Grantaire had gotten enough rest.

"You have done the exact same thing, Enjolras. Do not come at me with that crap." Grantaire spat back.

Enjolras glared at him. "Yeah, but I've done my best to stop because I know how much it worries you. The least you could do is show the same courtesy! Especially after you ended up in the hospital a month ago!"

That night when they walked into the Musain together, they were not holding hands like they normally would have been and walked to the separate tables without sharing a small kiss. Immediately, the group knew that there was trouble in paradise.

The two of them were avoiding looking at each other during the entirety of the meeting. Grantaire doesn't say anything to interrupt Enjolras' speech. Once the meeting was over, Enjolras stayed where he was sitting with Combeferre, Courfeyrac, Feuilly, Marius, and Cosette, while Grantaire stayed sitting next to Joly, Bossuet, Musichetta, Jehan, Éponine, and Bahorel.

Enjolras let himself fall out of the conversation he was having with the others at his table only to hear Jehan ask Grantaire why they were fighting now.

"Oh, because Enjolras is being his normal dawdling self." Grantaire said.

Enjolras looked over and glared at him before saying. "I wouldn't dawdle, if you hadn't ended up in the hospital a month ago. You have no idea what it was like waiting those six hours while they drained your lungs! You worry about me, can't I worry about you?"

"You don’t have to worry about me! I'm a grown man, I can take care of myself." Grantaire as he stood up.

"Clearly, you can't!" Enjolras stood up as well.

Grantaire rolled his eyes. "Hears a thought, if you worry so much about me, why don't you just break up with me, so that you don’t have too, anymore."

The entire room froze at the comment and Enjolras looked at Grantaire, as if he had been slapped. Grantaire just continued glaring at Enjolras, not realizing what he had just said. Enjolras stared at him and words slipped out of his mouth before he stopped them.

"I'm not going to break up with you. The only reason I worry so much for you is because I love you, damn it!" Enjolras said to Grantaire, but froze when he realized what he had just said.

All the anger that they were feeling disappeared from both of them as Grantaire walked toward Enjolras. He took his boyfriend into his arms.

"What did you just say?" Grantaire asked him.

Enjolras blushed before saying sheepishly, "I said that I love you."

Grantaire cupped his boyfriend's face before saying it back and pressing his lips to Enjolras'. The cheered as they kissed.

Enjolras pulled away from the kiss. "I didn’t want to say it the first time like this. I wanted it to be romantic."

Grantaire shook his head. "You're such a sap, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm sorry that I made you worry. I understand why you worry, I do. I'll promise that I will try to do better, okay?"

"Okay." Enjolras told him. "I love you."

"I know." Grantaire said before he pressed his lips to his again. The kiss grew in its passion and intensity causing the other people to groan in disgust.

When they left the Musain that night, they left with their hands laced together and smiles on their faces.

***

That night, after they made love, they laid in their bed facing each other. Their hands intertwined between them. Enjolras leaned forward to kiss his boyfriend's nose.

"Love, I need you to know that I never pushed you to say it because I wanted you to say it your own time." Grantaire broke the silence in the room. "We both have had hard lives, but I know that you will probably always have your issues. Your fear of abandonment because of your dad leaving you and your mom when you were eight, and then, your mom when you eleven. Your fear of being hurt and how hard it is for you to trust someone because of all the exes that cheated on you or left you without so much of explanation as to why. From the moment we met, you had walls around your heart. Walls that I have been lucky enough to break through and knock down, but love, I promise you that I will never leave you or do anything to intentionally hurt you. I can’t promise that I won't ever hurt you because I'm sure that I will, but I hope you know that I don't mean to."

"I know, you don't." Enjolras said.

"It never mattered to me that you have never said it before because I knew that you loved me, and I didn't need you to say it because I would see it in the sweetness of your kisses, the soft and gentle caresses when we make love, the concern and worry in your voice when you know that I've worked too much, and lastly, in the look of complete and utter adoration in your eyes every time you look at me."

Enjolras smiled and said. "And I'll always be thankful for that. We may drive each other insane sometimes, but you've always been patient with me and there for me whenever I have needed you."

"Well, I have to be because I am never letting you go. It took us forever to become friends, and even longer to become boyfriends. When I asked you to be my boyfriend, I knew what I was getting into with you."

"I'm sorry about taking two days to give you an answer."

"Love, you don't have to be sorry. I understood it, then, and I understand it now." Grantaire told him.

"I love you, so much."

"I love you, too."

They smiled at each other before leaning in for a kiss. Grantaire moved to cuddle with his boyfriend as they started to fall asleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are welcome. In fact, they are encouraged! :) No flames, though, please.
> 
> I also have a blog on Tumblr: ilovemybarricadebabies! So, come check it out!


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